Dervish

The Elder Scrolls: Fruits of Contention - Chapter 1 (Completed)

@MiddleEarthRoze To clarify, she doesn't need to bave smithing skills, someone who does just needed to be in attendance to craft something that'll work on the lock.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@DervishThat is all very good advice. I've been solo writing for too long! I like stories with multiple perspectives from multiple different characters, so I tend to stray over in some ways. I'll keep an eye out for that. Killer Krogan, by the way.

@PrivateVentures

Thanks! Glad you enjoy him. I always wonder how people take my characters out of the gate. Hell, I wonder what people think of them months or years later. >_>

I'm actually an awful solo writer. I have the hardest time trying to plan out a story and characters and all the plot points and so on so forth. I probably should actually try sometime.

<Snipped quote by POOHEAD189>

I mean I killed the Council on my most recent Paragon run. Assholes...

I have also reached a point where expanded histories are a pain to write. I might have to give a shorthand "What's happened since Saren?" version if it's gonna be good.

@Mega Birb

I pretty much summed up the events of Mass Effect and the post war period in just a few short paragraphs, nothing too in depth. Everyone knows what happened in the series, all you really have to do is make note of what your character was doing at that point. It's the developmental years and major life events are the stuff that really matters for being focused on.

Mass Effect: Underworld

<Snipped quote by Dervish>
Oh isn't it!?

@POOHEAD189

It was only a colony.

No biggie.

It would be kind of like if a volcano ate North Dakota, who would even notice?

@DervishSorry about that. I'm still learning. Probably won't ever stop learning.

@PrivateVentures

No sweat, man! I apologize if I came across as harsh or anything, definitely wasn't the intention, I just like to explain things and it's hard to turn off GM mode at times.

Like Poo said, you're doing just dandy for starting off roleplaying! I'm still learning stuff all the time and I've been doing it non-stop for about 5 years now. A handy rule of thumb is if you want to do something that involves another character, be it something like the situation we were discussing or involving them via some sort of in-game action, always run your thoughts by a person. Most people are pretty open-minded about stuff and ideas, but I've also run into people who would seriously take issue with people having their characters do something as simple as shake hands or grab them by the shoulder.

Mass Effect: Borealis

Sounds good.

Team Gimp Fix is a go.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@PrivateVentures

Ugh. Been writing way too much "caste" on this phone that it autocorrects"cast"

DAMN YOU AUTOCORRECT AND PRIMITIVE BATARIAN SOCIAL HIERARCHY!!!! ARGH ! *shakes fist in the sky*

@SgtEasy

Autocorrect is evil. I turn it off every time, all the time.

Typing suggestions, however, are grand. I just don't like my phone going "lol I'm gonna change this word on you and make you look like a dumbass if you don't notice" on me.

And batarian society isn't primitive. I bet they can totally see why kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@DervishHe didn't intercept it himself. It was most likely traded to him for a favor, or in exchange for other information, possibly biotic weapons, possibly conventional weapon designs. Typically, information like that gets taken by someone close to the subject, traded or sold to someone who somewhat knows the subject, then to someone who knows of the subject, then to someone who doesn't know the subject, then to Ellis Taevon. I doubt it was a big job. Probably just a bodyguarding gig. Maybe even corporate sabotage.

@PrivateVentures

Still presents the problem of who would have had access to his information to sell it, or why Ellis would be interested in it to begin with. The messages from the Spectres were sent out recently, and once again, Rykarn is utterly unremarkable among the aliens remaining on Earth with a very minimal Extranet footprint that wouldn't be worth very much to anyone.

I hate to kind of harp on the point, but this kind of verges on power playing aspects of my character because you are giving your character access to my character's information without running it by me first.

Imagine if you will that you were trying to keep Ellis' Cerberus history under wraps and another character had either hacked into his data or paid for it, like you claim Ellis had done (once again, I don't see why he'd pick Rykarn's data for a trade to begin with), and suddenly spilled that out to the group, changing their opinions and dynamics towards that character, or they suddenly had schematics of his suit and could figure out how to exploit it. It's a very similar premise and problem.

I just don't see why you see the need to veer from the premise that every character was on the Spectre's radar and were individually contacted.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@Dervish O_o Well that is a small galaxy.
I assure you, that is a complete coincidence

@POOHEAD189

I have that book, so it came right to mind when I saw the name.

hella coincidence because Skarr is the only canon Battlemaster that BioWare's established lol.

Might be worth considering a name change.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@Dervish

It's also weird when you realise you can't use human ways of conveying emotion. For example, instead of a sigh I made Ja'Far make a grunt of exasperation because sighs are naturally a human/asari concept XD

Aliens are confuzzling but fascinating at the same time

@SgtEasy

It's a fun challenge, trying to get out of the mentality of a human and trying to think of the thought process of something else entirely. ;D

<Snipped quote by Dervish>

This is why you go for Kharjo rather than J'zargo.

@Mega Birb

But they have almost identical follower dialog!

Plus, there's a whole thing that most Khajiit don't really see themselves as residing in their own bodies, but rather are using it as a vessel in one stage of life, that starts to make things a bit more complicated. It's basically spiritual Avatar.

@SgtEasyMost of us I think were selected for military prowess or commendations. Rayes, I think is here for his technical skill, Ellis stole the coordinates from the message sent to Ravanor Rykarn, who is here as a skilled Krogan Battlemaster. We have a very rare Turian, and who knows who else is gonna show up?

@PrivateVentures

Not that I necessarily have a problem with him intercepting a message, but I kind of want to know how and why he would have done that? Rykarn's been a pretty unremarkable individual on Earth, and there really wouldn't be a reason to be monitoring his communications since he really doesn't see the need to message anyone save for his brother one in a while, or the people related to his employment. Unless Ellis knew about his involvement with a Spectre during the war and took an interest, but if that were the case, he would have recognized Rykarn at the meeting.

Also, Rykarn isn't a Battlemaster; he isn't a biotic, and he's not leading anyone.

@POOHEAD189

http://masseffect.wikia.com/wiki/Skarr

?

Mass Effect: Underworld

“Rough day?” the turian asked, noticing Rykarn’s glass problem. The krogan grunted non-committedly.

“Locals who can’t hold their liquor.”

Surprisingly, it was a quarian that made his way to Rykarn next, perhaps because of his lack of involvement in whatever was causing the ancient sprinkler system to shower the station and the apparent hostilities, or if he thought people were picking sides that the krogan was the safest bet. He seemed skittish, or at least conspiracy minded. Test? Spectres? Whoever it was, it probably wasn’t Spectres. He worked with one, and they didn’t seem all that fond on playing games on people. Before he could interject, the turian sidled up, reminding the krogan of some character out of a detective vid for some reason he couldn’t put a finger on. Perhaps he seemed too sly or opportunistic.

“I wouldn’t call this gaggle a ‘group’, or a social hub. It’s an assembly of people who were all brought to these coordinates. Some of you are rather wound up for no damn reason. Besides, if this is a test, it’s stupid; you don’t drag people out somewhere just to have them kill each other pointlessly. Trust me, kid. Don’t make assumptions. Just observe and react to what you do know.” Rykarn replied to the quarian, albeit not unkindly. “And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, explosions are never random.”

He shook his head at the turian. “This is the spot. This station survived the Reaper war; it can survive a few jumpy pyjaks who get jumpy around strangers. You can go; I’m staying. I want to find out exactly who not only located us over the extranet on an untraceable account, but told each and every one of us to be here, at this time. If they don’t show in an hour, I’m writing it off as pointless and leaving.”

Meanwhile, outside of the seemingly only stable circle in the station, it was the batarian who spoke up, huffing irritably and smoking, not unlike the turian. Rykarn observed his body language, noting the alien only had the three eyes. There was some history there, he was certain. When the batarian unleashed his actual language, it seemed annoyingly flowery and superficial. It was like Sir Francis Kitt’s Elcor Hamlet came to life, haunting the krogan for mistakenly spending credits to go see that production due to a very uneventful shore leave.

Unfortunately for Ja’Far, he was already doomed in Rykarn’s mind as being associated with the most tediously horrible 13 hours of his life. He was also a religious fanatic. Wonderful.

“The talking thesaurus has the right of it. We stay here and see who shows. Just don’t do anything stupid like wave guns around at each other and set off more bombs, because if you’re the kind of varren-brained stooge who shows up to a meeting spot from an unknown sender expecting to be ambushed, you’re an idiot because you thought you would be in danger but you came anyways.” Rykarn announced to the assembly at large, collapsing his shotgun and slotting it against the small of his back. He stepped back to lean against the tilework, arms crossed. People were making introductions, and that was fine. If they were all here for a reason, they’d find out soon enough.

Rykarn took in the faces, or masks in the case of the quarians, and tried to figure out if there was something they all had in common. From the firepower present and the ongoing pissing contest turned makeup festival, the initial thought was mercenaries who were local and needed for a job. Problem was he didn’t recognize any of them, and having a self-professed former batarian Hegemony soldier wandering around on Earth without having been stabbed in a dark alley seemed unlikely, especially for one who was so under-dressed for the occasion. The only human, a surprising thing, considering they were on Earth, was hardly a stabilizing element. He was mutually antagonistic with a number of the people in attendance, and he had the gall to admit to being ex-Cerberus; if there was a candidate for unsolved murder in post-war London that was hated more than batarians, it was an ex-Cerberus operative.

Rykarn heard enough stories to already loathe the Ellis individual; no amount of so-called redemption attempts were enough to wash away the stain of association with the notoriously xenophobic terrorists who deliberately tried to sabotage the war effort against the Reapers and countless other atrocities committed against aliens. His pacing and endless fidgeting, as well as his attempts to become chummy with the other people, only further entrenched his resentment towards the human. When he powered down his suit, an oddity in of itself, it was a disguised blessing. The less he went noticed, the better.

People were killing the time the ways they knew how, some more restlessly than others. The krogan was used to waiting; for someone who could outlive an asari, he had all the time in the world. An hour wouldn’t mean a damn thing.

Mass Effect: Underworld

@PrivateVentures

Definitely, good interactions will be a great start for the group ^^

Also, I'm starting to regret my decision to go with Old English as my character's way of speech XD

@SgtEasy

I know that feel.

I'm playing a Khajiit in an Elder Scrolls RP. Keeping third person pronouns in mind all the time is mental Olympics some days, I tells ya.